Apple and the iPhone trailing Samsung in China

If you though the iPhone was big in China, think again. Gartner says that despite landing a deal with China Telecom, Apple has only a third of Samsung's smartphone market share. Samsung currently holds 24.3%, while Apple currently commands 7.5% of Chinese smartphone owners. Gartner says that the situation won't change without support for China Mobile, the biggest carrier in the country (and the world, for that matter).

Although it's unfortunate for Apple that they're missing out, they haven't bothered to make an AWS-compatible iPhone to address the entire U.S. market, so it's not entirely surprising that they aren't willing to make a TD-SCDMA iPhone either. Maybe once China rolls out LTE Apple will be able to address the entire market there.

Yes, Apple is still dominating in global profit share, but with Apple's margins, every point of market share brings with it a huge amount of profit share, and in China they're just not exploiting it to its full potential yet.

Reader comments

Apple and the iPhone trailing Samsung in China

Geez people. How log has the iPhone been in China?... Give it some time, it's not like the Chinese are made of money like we are. I'm sure more will swap to it when they next replace their phones. Also, with the next iPhone and iOS6 due out later this year, that'll help things as well because some people do think that iOS is limited in terms of what it can do as opposed to Android.

iOS natively is actually not that limited. Apple just chooses to make it like that in stock form. If Apple had used Android instead, it would still be just as limited because they belive in controlling the user experience in order to keep it at the expected level of quality they want out of it.
Think of it like this... Apple = IT Lockdowns and Android = Hacker Grunge. It'll make more sense that way.

I agree with you, but I'm sure most prefer and feel much safer within Apple's walled garden approach to their mobile platform; I sure do, and I'm not just saying that as an Apple fan. I'd rather use my phone, iPad and Macs with a feeling of security than uncertainty that comes with Android.

I see your point I wouldn't have an Iphone unless i could jailbreak it. Android seems usless in my opinion. It'll either be Windows phone or a jailbroke Iphone for me. If security was the only thing I thought about I would have a blackberry.